The Best Restaurant Openings in Los Angeles – October 2026

Nancy Silverton is heading west, and we couldn’t be happier. For the first time in her decades-long career, the celebrated Los Angeles chef has crossed the 405 to open a restaurant, partnering with Caruso Restaurant Group and New School Hospitality on a modern Italian steakhouse at the newly reopened Palisades Village. It’s a welcome addition to an area still recovering from the devastating 2025 wildfires, and one that promises to bring some much-needed energy back to the community. Taking cues from Silverton’s meat-centric chi SPACCA, the menu runs from Australian Wagyu and enormous steaks for sharing to lobster Newberg, whole branzino, and her much-loved, for good reason, focaccia di Recco. Designed by AvroKO, the conservatory-inspired dining room features deep burgundy banquettes, dark wood, botanical murals, and sculptural lighting, along with a central bar and an olive-tree-lined patio overlooking the Park at Palisades Village.

Brian Bornemann, the chef behind Santa Monica’s seafood-focused Crudo e Nudo, has opened Bar Fortuna, an intimate Italian cocktail and wine bar just down Main Street. Inspired by his time cooking in Italy, the new spot brings together handmade pasta, a serious amaro collection, and Italian cooking shaped by California ingredients. Bornemann and chef de cuisine Jose Morales, longtime collaborators, make pasta daily, including gemelli with sausage, fennel pollen, grapes, and rosemary, and squid ink fettuccine with ’nduja and yellow tomatoes. Whole lambs and pigs sourced from California ranchers are butchered in-house, while wine director JD Plotnick oversees a list spanning Italy and California. The charming space features terracotta walls, marble counters, antique glassware, and a working 1917 Victrola that plays Italian opera. It’s a little slice of old-world Italy a short walk from the beach.

Little Luck, a modern Japanese izakaya on the Sunset Strip, comes from The h.wood Group, the hospitality company behind Delilah and The Nice Guy. Los Angeles native Erik Idos leads the kitchen after a career that included Per Se, Jean-Georges, and nearly a decade with Nobu, including running its Hong Kong kitchens. The sharing-friendly menu moves between sashimi, charcoal-grilled meats, and dishes such as quail karaage, Santa Barbara spot prawns, and bone-in short rib ssam with gochujang miso. Kevin Lee, known for his creative use of Japanese cocktail techniques, oversees the bar. The moody interiors take inspiration from Ophiuchus, sometimes called the 13th sign of the zodiac, with celestial details, sculptural lighting, and a wall of some 4,000 vinyl records supplying the evening’s soundtrack. Two private dining rooms feature built-in karaoke, making Little Luck as much about a night out as dinner itself, in typical h.wood Group fashion.

Named for the experimental Douglas X-3 Stiletto aircraft rather than the shoe, this new steakhouse from restaurateur Sean Martin has opened beside the Santa Monica Airport. Irish-born chef Patrick Powell leads the kitchen following a London career that included Chiltern Firehouse, Allegra, and One Club Row. The cooking has a slightly British bent and centers on an open flame, with dry-aged beef from Texas’s Rosewood Ranch, coastal seafood, and seasonal produce sourced largely from local farmers markets. There’s plenty beyond steak, including pickled jalapeño and Comté gougères, peri peri chicken, and pork schnitzel with gorgonzola. A dry-aged cheeseburger au poivre is available exclusively at the bar, alongside martinis and pints of Guinness. Designed by Barbara Rourke of Bells + Whistles, the restaurant features reclaimed French oak floors, soaring ceilings, and an enormous marble bar that give it the feel of a grand European brasserie.

Beverly Hills is getting a taste of one of the Valley’s most popular pastries. Chef Uzi Wizman’s Borekas Sephardic Pastries, which first drew crowds to a tiny Sherman Oaks takeout window in 2022, has expanded to South Beverly Drive, bringing its buttery, flaky take on the traditional Sephardic pastry to a fourth Los Angeles location. The appeal is simple: beautifully laminated dough made with clarified butter wrapped around fillings such as potato and brown butter, spinach and feta, or mushrooms with caramelized onions and truffle. Each savory pastry comes with the traditional accompaniments of tomato pulp, spicy schug, pickles, and a just-set jammy egg. There’s also a cheese and za’atar version, along with more inventive drinks such as a walnut-maple halva latte.

Mexican rum is having a moment in Sherman Oaks, where the award-winning team behind Mírate and Daisy Margarita Bar has opened an ambitious new drinking destination. Hidden upstairs from Daisy, the 24-seat Gilbert Perez Bar houses a collection of 75 Mexican rums, aguardientes, and charandas, with beverage director Max Reis putting the country’s lesser-known sugarcane spirits in the spotlight. Cocktails include the Liquid Limpia, made with hoja santa, Oaxacan rum, lime, and a Jalisco aperitif, alongside familiar classics reworked with Mexican spirits. But the drinks are only half the story. The bar’s name alludes to the legend of Gil Pérez, a 16th-century soldier who mysteriously appeared in Mexico City after vanishing from the Philippines. Throughout the evening, the experience carries guests through different periods and places in Mexico as the lighting, music, and cocktail menus change. There’s plenty of theatricality, courtesy of Adean Studios and Spike Design, along with a strict no-phone policy. Think Mexican rum bar meets immersive theater, and you’ve got the idea.